In this interview I chat with Dr. Jonathan Gottschall about his path from literature professor to cage-fighter. We also talk about the history of male violence in culture and throughout history, dueling and honor cultures, toxic masculinity, and what MMA says about present society and the human condition.
Here is more info on Jonathan and his various works:
https://www.jonathangottschall.com/
Jonathan is a Distinguished Fellow in the English Department at Washington & Jefferson College. His writing at the intersection of science and art has been covered in-depth by The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Scientific American, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Oprah Magazine, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Science, Nature, and on shows like Radiolab, Morning Edition, National Geographic's StarTalk with Neal de Grasse Tyson, and The Joe Rogan Experience. Jonathan is the author or editor of eight books, including The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human (Houghton 2012), The Professor in the Cage: Why Men Fight and Why We Like to Watch (Penguin 2015), and The Story Paradox: How Our Love of Storytelling Builds Societies and Tears them Down (Basic Books, November 2021), which is a about the dark side of humanity's storytelling instincts.